Police officers in York and North Yorkshire are to get on-the-spot access to a national police database, crime records, intelligence information and email.

Chief officers in the county joined forces with police in West Yorkshire and Humberside to bid for a share of £50million of Government funding.

They wanted £10 million to share between them - which would have meant 600 of the devices for bobbies in North Yorkshire - but have instead received £4.55 million.

It has not yet been decided how the cash will be split between the three forces.

The aim of the devices is to reduce the amount of time officers have to spend in the office to use the computer systems, and increase the time they can be out on the beat.

The system will enable officers to have "up-to-the-minute" access to intelligence on local criminals and aid with the arrest of suspects at the earliest opportunity to protect the public.

Bobbies will also benefit from access to back-office systems which in the past have only been accessible on desk top computers in police stations.

The devices will also be capable of supporting officers across all aspects of policing, from community-based anti-social behaviour through to anti-terrorism activity.

According to a report to North Yorkshire Police Authority, the gadgets could lead to each officer being able to spend an extra 45 minutes per shift out on the streets.

If every frontline officer in the force was given one of the gadgets, the report claims it would mean a seven per cent increase in time spent on the streets - the equivalent of an extra £3 million in frontline resources.

It would also mean that bobbies on the beat would not have to rely on control room staff - so they would be more easily available by telephone to help members of the public.

The force got 20 similar devices installed in its vehicles in April 2007, which led to officers getting to incidents more quickly as well as an increase in checks on the Police National Computer.

The Press told yesterday how the Government is investing £50 million in hand-held data technology and plans to increase the number of devices used by police forces across the UK to 10,000.

Any funding allocated has to be used during the 2008/2009 financial year, and the forces' ability to have the devices in use by September this year was to be taken into account in the application process.

In its funding bid, North Yorkshire Police proposed to implement an estimated 600 devices by March 2009, 250 of which were expected to be up-and-running by September 2008.

The collaboration between the three forces is an important development in working together. Speaking on behalf of all three forces, Assistant Chief Constable, Phil Goatley, of Humberside Police, said: "We are obviously very pleased with the result. This is a testament to the hard work put in by the regional team to tight timescales. I think that our case built strongly on collaboration and realising benefits from the new technology were significant in our success.

"The new mobile devices will allow our operational staff to be out in public more and to deliver a better quality of service by improving not least the ease and level of contact which we can maintain with the communities we all serve."

British Transport Police (BTP) officers in the region have also been granted funding for about 100 of the gadgets.

It is part of a package worth almost £2m which will fund an additional 800 devices and printers for BTP areas throughout the country.